CNY unions still angry with Madoff

Louis Lanzano / APIn this March 12, 2009 file photo, Bernard Madoff arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York. Madoff is due to be sentenced Monday for masterminding a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Syracuse, NY -- Bernie Madoff's victims from around the nation will pack a Manhattan courtroom this morning to see him sentenced for stealing billions in the biggest Ponzi scheme in Wall Street history.

The Upstate New York labor unions whose pension and benefits plans lost about $180 million will not be busing construction workers or retirees to New York to push for a long jail term.

None of the thousands of Upstate construction workers whose retirement funds were raided sent letters to Judge Dennis Chin. That doesn't mean the guys wearing hard hats don't have strong feelings about Madoff.

"I think he should be sent to jail for a very long time," said carpenter Mike Pocyntyluk as he helped build a nine-story dormitory on Syracuse University's campus.

"Everyone in Madoff's family should give back the money they have. All of it. They made other people poor. They should be poor, too," said Pocyntyluk, a member of Carpenters Local 747 in Salina.

Madoff, 71, is facing a possible 150-year term. His lawyers have asked Chin to sentence Madoff to 12 years in prison.

The list of Madoff's victims runs 60 pages long. If Madoff had killed or injured that many people instead of ripping them off, "they would call him a serial killer," said Kathy Thomas, the council representative for the Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters.

"Literally, there are guys that worked their wholes lives and they can't retire because it's gone," she said. "They were innocent bystanders in a train wreck."

Madoff should get one year in jail for each victim, Thomas suggested.

In addition to carpenters, Madoff's victims in Upstate New York include plumbers, laborers, bricklayers, electricians, roofers and heavy equipment operators.

The victimized union benefit plans used J.P. Jeanneret Associates, a Syracuse financial adviser, to invest their pension and health insurance funds. Jeanneret Associates, run by John Jeanneret, of Clay, put the unions' money into several funds, including one that Jeanneret managed. Beginning in the early 1990s, those funds invested part of the unions' assets in Madoff's hedge fund.

FBI agents arrested Madoff on Dec. 11 after he admitted he stole an estimated $50 billion from investors around the world.

Madoff pleaded guilty in March to 11 felonies, including theft from union benefit plans. As part of his plea, Madoff admitted in September he pocketed $10 million he was supposed to invest for about 35 union benefit plans.

Records filed by the unions claim their losses were far greater.

In a suit, Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 73 in Oswego said it lost $17 million to Madoff.

Through his lawyer, Jeanneret declined Friday to comment.

Most of the union leaders have been reluctant to talk about the Madoff case, their efforts to recoup the losses, or how the theft will hurt workers and retirees.

Luke Renna, Central New York field representative for the Bricklayers Local 2, said the theft will not reduce the benefits received by the region's retired bricklayers. Local 2 has not increased the amount that bricklayers have to contribute to their pension or changed the age they may retire.

Neither has Laborers Union Local 443 of Syracuse, said Gabe Rosetti Jr., its business manager.

But eventually, some construction workers will feel the sting, predicted William Shannon, Upstate New York Laborers District Council business manager.

"No one (in the laborers union) has felt any effect yet. There will probably be an effect in the future. We're doing our best to minimize that," Shannon said.

Only one of the Upstate unions victimized has notified the Department of Labor that its pension plan is in "critical status" -- meaning the plan has funding or liquidity problems, or both.

Syracuse-based Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 267 -- whose Madoff losses include about $7 million from two benefits plans -- put its pension in critical status beginning Jan. 1.

When that happens, pension plans often take steps to reduce some benefits.

Local 267 did not notify the federal Employee Benefits Security Administration how it intended to cure its problems. Attempts to reach Business Manager Greg Lancette were unsuccessful.

Union officials said they hope the court-appointed trustee liquidating and distributing Madoff's assets will help the unions recover some money.

Jeanneret Associates, whose own retirement plan lost nearly $950,000 from Madoff's theft, has not recovered any money, said Brian Whiteley, an attorney representing Jeanneret.

Jeanneret has been liquidating and returning to the unions the remaining assets that he manages for them, Renna said.

"I don't blame Jeanneret," said Renna, the bricklayers Local 2 field representative. "I don't think he had a clue what was going on. I feel sorry for him."

Still, Bricklayers Local 2, like some other unions, have replaced Jeanneret, Renna said.